When I first saw the Wall Street Journal op-ed attacking the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) for many purported sins, my first thought was that I should just congratulate CMMI for having arrived. After all, in our hyper-partisan environment, you aren’t anybody unless you are considered worth bashing…
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Casey Shillam, left, and Grandma Pat. Note: I asked Casey Shillam, PhD, RN-BC, Nursing Academic Program Director and Associate Professor at Western Washington University, to write a blog for Health AGEnda to reflect on her role in 2013 as the Chair of the Hartford Gerontological Nursing Leaders (HGNL). Among…
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Click on image for a PDF of the report. All family caregivers are not alike. A new Insight on the Issues report, Family Caregivers Providing Complex Chronic Care to Their Spouses, shows that the burden of caregiving disproportionately impacts spouses. The report was produced by the AARP Public Policy…
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Nuala Pell served on the Hartford Foundation Board of Trustees for 19 years before retiring in 2000. She posed for this portrait in 1999. Nuala Pell lived a remarkable life full of grace, dignity, and passion for the causes she believed in. With her passing at age 89 on…
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Butte, Mont., with the former Berkley Pit copper mine in the distance. My recent travels to the rural Northwest to visit clinics that have applied for the next round of Social Innovation Fund (SIF) grants have given me an even deeper appreciation of both the beauty of this part…
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Susie Jane Stringham My mother passed away recently after suffering from the terrible effects of Alzheimer’s disease for over a decade. About three years ago, I wrote about my experience being with her as she one day suddenly and eloquently expressed her fears and pleaded for understanding. It became…
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Many of our grantees have heard about two new and exciting opportunities now available to Hartford Change AGEnts. In case you missed prior announcements, here are the details about the Hartford Change AGEnts Policy Institute and the Hartford Interdisciplinary Communications Conference, both taking place this summer. Anyone who has ever…
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If our work at the John A. Hartford Foundation has taught us one thing, it’s this: In the quest to transform primary care for older adults, a huge part of the answer is deploying more geriatrically expert primary care teams that can coordinate and deliver care designed around the patient’s…
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Marcus Escobedo, left, talks with AHCJ Executive Director Len Bruzzese at this year's conference in Denver. Growing up, my parents would get up every morning, pour their coffee, and read the nearest “big city” newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. In the evening, they’d watch the local TV news, followed…
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Once again I want to call the Hartford community (all of the grantees, fellows, scholars, alums, and friends) to respond to an opportunity to put geriatrics expertise to work. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the 900-pound gorilla with a checkbook whose actions shape so much of health…
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